alt Hacker NewsWho is we, though? I can't do anything about it. Can you?
Isn't this true for literally all problems in a democracy? Do you have a better solution?
Hopefully we'll get AGI soon and it'll take over and rule as a benevolent overlord. Short of that, everything in your comment feels like it has always applied to every societal problem, and always will.
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slt2021 • yesterday at 5:49 PM
US is not a democracy in a strict sense, it is more like plutocracy (people with money have the power).
- the electoral college where winner takes all, so minority opposition vote is always suppressed
- gerrymandering that dilutes and suppresses the minority opposition vote
- oligopoly of two parties
- unchecked financial influence by allowing unlimited funding via PACs
- legalized lobbying/bribery
- influence of special interest groups
- the influence of legal system with expensive lawyers (that only rich can afford)
> Isn't this true for literally all problems in a democracy? Do you have a better solution?
Create a level playing field where money does not amplify speech. Our existing democracy is basically a spending contest with a very small component of eloquently persuading voters to vote against their own interest. The richest of the rich have voices and can manipulate the platforms on which others express their voices, and so those rich people either pick the victors or become them.
For democracy to survive we have to get past the idea that a "free market" approach to speech leads to democratic outcomes. It doesn't, it leads to plutocratic outcomes, which is painfully obvious on both sides of the aisle right now. Americans haven't had a true representative of the people in generations.